Low voter turnout islandwide in Saturday’s primary

Across all four of Molokai’s voting precincts, only 20.75 percent of registered voters turned out for Saturday’s primary election.

Among the 84,386 registered voters in Maui County, 34.2 percent or 28,839 people cast ballots. On Molokai, 818 people voted.

The top two vote-getters in the Maui County mayoral election were incumbent Charmaine Tavares with 7,307 votes, or 25.4 percent, while Alan Arakawa garnered 7,039 votes, or 24.4 percent. They both advance to the Nov. 2 general election.

Molokai candidate for mayor, Patricia Hammond, aka Sally Chow, received 134 votes countywide, 45 on Molokai.

Former County Planning Director Chris Hart, who spent considerable time and money campaigning on Molokai, finished fourth overall, behind Randy Piltz in third, with 3,035 ballots or 10.5 percent. In the Kilohana precinct on Molokai’s East End Hart received the most votes with 36, ahead of Tavares (30) and Arakawa (22). Kilohana was the only precinct that Hart won in the county.

In other county races, Elle Cochran and Alan Fukuyama finished in first and second place, respectively, in the race for the council’s West Maui residency seat. Cochran took 7,980 votes, or 27.7 percent, while Fukuyama had 5,693 votes, or 19.8 percent.

The top two candidates in council races advance to the general election.

In the South Maui council race, Don Couch held on to an early lead to maintain a first-place finish over runner-up incumbent Council Member Wayne Nishiki. Couch grabbed 11,524 votes, or 40 percent, and Nishiki took 10,686 votes, or 37.1 percent.

Former state legislator Mike White came out on top of the race for the council’s Makawao-Haiku-Paia seat, taking 10,150 votes, or 35.2 percent, followed by runner-up Kai Nishiki with 6,805 votes, or 23.6 percent.

No ballots were cast in at Kalaupapa, the former settlement for Hansen’s disease patients. Kalaupapa is part of the state’s Kalawao County, a separate county from Maui County.

Category: maui county, News